It has long been known to utilize fishing weights or sinkers to fishing lines for the submerging of lures, baited hooks, etc., and various means and devices have been employed in the prior art. Some devices have required tools for attaching a weight to a line, some devices have limited or no reusability, such as weights crimped onto lines. The employment of knots is undesirable, because of time consumption, ineffectiveness, and often, necessity of cutting lines to remove or change a weight.
In most instances, it is desirable that the weight remain at a selected location on a line, and that it be capable of quick and convenient attachment and removal relative to the line. It is also desirable that it be reusable and relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
The prior art includes devices which employ inserts or retainers with weights to clamp or retain the weight in selected position on a fishing line. These include U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,860 to Clark, which employs a resilient insert pushed into a slot in a weight and retained to engage the line in a central bore of the weight.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,903 to Hutson utilizes a threaded bushing through which a fishing line is threaded and extended, and which threadedly engages threads defined in the weight to compress the bushing by the coaction of inclined interior walls of the weight, thus to clamp the line.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,534 to Lazich involves a sinker assembly of elongate configuration in which are defined two longitudinal slots in crossing arrangement, and a plastic retainer received therein. The retainer has a longitudinal bead for compression against slot edges to clamp the fishing line. This device is rather complicated, expensive and inconvenient.
There has been a need for a weight or sinker which is readily and conveniently attachable and removable relative to a fishing line, which is inexpensive to manufacture, requires no expertise or any tool, and is reusable many times without damage to weight or line. The object of the present invention is to meet such needs.